Final season of acclaimed U.S. TV drama ‘Mad Men’ to be split in two

WASHINGTON – The final season of award-winning U.S. television show “Mad Men” will be split in two, airing in 2014 and 2015, the cable channel that broadcasts it said Tuesday.

In an announcement days before this year’s Emmy Awards, AMC said it hoped to increase ratings for the show, centered on a New York advertising agency in the 1960s, as with its other hit series “Breaking Bad.”

The final “Mad Men” season will be expanded to 14 episodes and equally split with seven installments airing in spring 2014 — “The Beginning” — and the final seven — “The End of an Era” — in spring 2015, the channel said.

AMC chief Charlie Collier added, “This approach has worked well for many programs across multiple networks, and, most recently for us with ‘Breaking Bad,’ which attracted nearly double the number of viewers to its second half premiere than had watched any previous episode.”

“Mad Men,” starring Jon Hamm as ad executive Don Draper, won the best drama Emmy in each of its first four seasons, though it drew a blank at last year’s awards despite 17 nominations for its fifth season.